Milan, the infirmary is clearly improving: 51 fewer games missed

There were years in which the Rossoneri players fell one after the other, as happens in cycling when one falls and takes ten others with him. In Milanello, in the not too distant past, heads also rolled during periods in which the infirmary did not have enough beds for those injured. Seasons in which it became dramatically normal to face matches with seven or eight unavailable. This year’s AC Milan certainly has some flaws – distracted with small players, a slow first half, a less than exciting game – but among their various strengths there is also that of an infirmary that has never gone beyond the alert levels. Without going too far back in time, it is enough to look back at last season to observe the objective improvement.

method

—

We compared the ’24-25 edition of Milan with the ’25-26 edition, in both cases examining the data at the end of March and taking only the championship into consideration, since last year’s team played in the Champions League and reached the penultimate stage in the Italian Cup. Four parameters were evaluated: the overall number of events, those of a muscular nature, the number of players involved and the number of games missed (i.e. in the absence of a call-up) adding the knockouts of the men involved.

considerations

—

Two reflections, meanwhile. Dutiful and factual, but which certainly do not explain everything and do not undermine the good work of the coach and his staff in this area. The first: without European cups there is evidently less wear and tear, the overcrowding of the calendar linked to the increase in injuries is an increasingly central theme in today’s football. The second: the current squad is 23 players, last season’s (always at this point of the year) was 26. Simply put: the more players, the greater chance of someone getting hurt.

data

—

Given all this, the numbers are quite sensational. Up to this point, 23 events have been recorded in the championship (i.e. 23 injuries with different timing or modalities from each other), of which 13 of a muscular nature, which involved 17 players, for a total of 78 games missed. 2024-25 Championship: 34 events, of which 22 muscular, for 19 different players and 129 games missed (this even rises to 181 considering the cups). They play 51 games, which is a lot in seven months. Both seasons have seen long-term injuries, particularly last year: Florenzi (7 months), Sportiello (3 months), Bennacer (3 and a half months), Jovic (3 months), Okafor (one month), Loftus-Cheek (2 months), Emerson Royal (3 and a half months). This year Torriani (one month), Leao (one and a half months), Jashari (2 months), Rabiot (one month), Gimenez (4 and a half months), Loftus-Cheek (one month). But the current year, even if these are situations that have no impact in strictly statistical terms, also records for example the less than optimal conditions of Leao and Pulisic, who played several matches gritting their teeth even though they were far from the top. The latter is, without a doubt, the most problematic aspect linked to the 2025-26 infirmary, but – numbers in hand – the overall medical balance still remains in certainly positive territory.